Wandrin' Round

This is the Catedral outside of the San Pedro Market, which has become one of my most favorite places... I just haven't taken pictures inside yet...Don't worry, there is plenty of time for images causing you to become vegetarian! EEK!


The picture above is the alley that my apartment is on. All of the streets are so narrow around here. The street leading to this alley does not have sidewalks.  Below is the street my school is on at 6:30 AM.  Avenida el Sol is normally packed. But it's awesome walking into work when there is no one else around.  It's madness trying to maneuver around Peruvians while walking on the sidewalks, so I take this time to enjoy the little things...

Here are just some pictures taken while walking around Cusco.

Stick that in your beltstrap.

So! Starting off the third week, and I might (shockingly) know enough vocabulary and grammar to be able to teach English to second language learners! Go Heather!!! whoot whoot. But really, my classes have improved greatly since the first week, so if this scale continues exponentially, then by the end of the third month I will be super teacher and have a great relationship with my students. We´ll see if the Inca idea for tomb building and the after life can translate into my job in the here and now. Maximo could be seen by some as a tomb, so it is possible, sí? Funny side-note: I just realized the key I had been using as an apostrophe is IN FACT an accent symbol. The apostrophe is somewhere completely different on the keyboard. One more for technology; God only knows what the score is at now, technology something astromonical, Heather 0... Moving along now. Of course there are enough factors keeping my classes like a roller coaster, it will be good or bad, but never constant. Maybe next month I can be the substitute, that is a lot of fun, just coming into classes and having a good time without having to be planning lame lessons. Granted you don't really build up the rapport with students, but anyway.

(This was Monday) Today marks my first pay day! It's awesome! Granted I'm not sure what my check will be since I hit up the snack bar at least once a day, and my spanish classes are deducted. However I did teach something like 7 extra hours this week. It should equal out...ehhhh.

Saving money is not possible at this altitude, I'm convinced.

I made lentil concoction last night (Sunday)! It was awesome! The spice section at the San Pedro Market was so incredible, I loaded up on cumin, black pepper kerns, fresh ginger, and I threw a little bit of all that into a pot of lentils, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, and it looked and smelled awesome until the sketch cooking supplies at my disposal started malfunctioning... The pot was way too small for my endeavor, and so things started boiling over and then burning... But it was cooked enough to have a small portion microwaved and eaten. awesome. Nothing comprable to Angus' soups, which I would kill for right now, but it was something that left me nostalgic for home. I wonder how fast the next six months will go by, not that I want them to end anytime soon, but there's such a confusion of time here, I'm not sure how that will take a toll on my mental spirits. I have noticed that the only days to drag by are Mondays and Tuesdays. So if that's only two days a week, for however many weeks are in the six months I shall be working for Maximo.... do the math ... it's not that bad! Whoo hoo.

Bury me here.

Above is the main Inca tomb at the Sullistani ruins site. Below are the ruins from the Colla period.  There were about five different styles of tomb construction here, but two varieties were tombs buried in the ground, so we didn't see those (they were also several miles away) and then there were the Colla, some other group that started with a T that I couldn't pronounce, and last were the Inca.  
Here is a close up of what the outside of the Inca tomb looks like.  There was a lizard etched on the side, the stone that is directly above and to the right of the stone with burn marks on it.  It's a dark stone inbetween two paler stones.  The lizard has the same representation as the snake, they are the underworld animals in Inca beliefs. 

These stones were part of one of the tombs, and they littered the landscape, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately for the kid in me it was not acceptable to climb around on them and act like an explorer or a monkey.  Phooey.

That's supposed to be a skull, it looked very badass next to the huge Inca tomb. Below is the inside of the tomb, The diameter is larger on top than at the bottom, that's because the Incas believed the spirit ascended into heaven, and if you extend the top so it keeps getting wider as it rises, there is a lot of heaven available for the spirit to be a part of.  The previous tomb constructions were the same diameter at the top and bottom, so the deceased was limited to the amount of heaven they experienced in the afterlife.

This island is a national park.
On the way back into Puno we stopped at this home, they had a different building for each "room" and there was a large compound where they had a guinea pig area, and out back there were pigs and more llamas.  Below is the traditional diet, there were two different types of dehydrated potatoes, one kind was just dried and the other they dried after soaking in the river for a long time period.  Apparently if you boil the potatoes for a while they return to whatever consistency they were originally.  There was also this type of clay they used as a flavor, it was really salty, and is added to boiled potatoes for some kick.  It kinda tasted like dirt, but was a soupy texture. They also had some cheese, but that went fast.  It was fun getting a chance to experience what a lifestyle in the middle of nowhere, Peru involves.  The beds were a stone frame with a few reed mats and blankets.  It looked rough.  The kitchen was a nicer area than I've seen in some other places; there was an outdoor oven and then an indoor area for when the weather is bad. This family had really nice pottery, I think the wife made most of it. Overall this compound was more developed than a lot of the ones we passed going to and from Sullistani. 

Teacher!

Eek!  I am procrastinating lesson planning for my 3 o'clock class by writing about how awesome the first two hours of my new job were this morning.  It was raining and nasty at 6:45 AM walking to Maximo Nivel faster than was safe because I was running late... It's so easy to want to sleep in when I live in a cave for a bedroom, that and I was out a little later than I planned last night, oops. I'll come back to that.  I almost slipped several times walking down the street, it was quite a spectacle, me in tights, a skirt, hiking books, and a rain jacket with my bookbag stuffed underneath.  Not the ideal look for the first day of school... I got to Maximo at 6:55 and ran up to the teachers lounge to unload and change into my cute shoes, wasted some time because I lost my keys to my locker, and then had to grab some Mate de Coca because my first class is in the basement, where it's cold, plus I'm addicted to the stuff.  I'm sipping on my third cup today and it's only 10 AM. All in all I was only a minute late, and then proceeded to sit and review the text for the next week because no learners showed up.  I don't feel so rejected since the classes to the right and left of mine only had one or two learners show up, respectively.  So much for taking three days for a reading... Hopefully tomorrow there might be some learners for my Intermediate 1 class.  I'm a substitute at 8AM, but that means I'm either taking over a class, working in the office, or sitting at the Tutor Table in the main lounge/lobby.  I did the latter today and had fun goofing off with the resident Tutor.  We didn't have anybody to need tutoring until right before 9, and then the table filled up... But I peaced out.  I don't have class again until 3, but it's my favorite level: Alto Basico, which is three months of English under their belt.  I haven't planned yet, but I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun! Wish me luck... 

I'm also teaching two classes of Basico Nuevo, which is the first level, it should be interesting. I'll probably be ready for Trivia night by the time 8 PM rolls around, but at this point in the day I have yet to be jaded by my class schedule.  

Back to the bar situation from last night, I went with several people to this Peruvian bar that you need an "in" to be able to enter.  Luckily one of the members of our group was a Peruvian and so we were acceptable.  It was a lot of fun, we just hung out sipping 1.5 Liter Pilsner beers out of little juice cups.  It was a trip. The perfect way to end a day of soccer!  That was another trip, this woman called me an animal at one point trying to enter the stadium fifteen minutes before the game was supposed to start. And this man in front of us was pulled out by the national guard that was security (incase of rioting... awesome.) because he or his son threw a bag of water and it landed on the police securing one of the stadium entrances. That was fun.  The game was incredible, there were so many people, and a lot of fireworks and streamers and water balloons being thrown at the goalies of the opposing team and the guards standing between the stands and the field.  The score was 1-1 only because of penalty shots, but there was some intense falls and fancy footwork, and the crowd was a lot of fun to spy on.  All in all yesterday's plan of lesson planning turned into something much more enjoyable. 

ciao.